Women in Stoves Programmes

Stove programmes in third world countries were introduced as an
intervention strategy to subvert the "woodfuel crisis", a side shoot of the
energy crisis of the seventies. The stove programmes were based on a number of
assumptions which included the following;

· large scale and immediate
introduction of energy efficient stoves would reduce the rate of deforestation
and save developing countries from the impending domestic energy crisis;

· the technical characteristics
of a stove are the determining factors in the overall system efficiency of a
domestic kitchen.

However, the energy problem is an indication of a larger
environmental problem and a facet of a larger crisis of poverty and
underdevelopment. Therefore it should not be dealt with in isolation. Localised
woodfuel shortages are normally a "contained problem" with coping strategies
adopted by women Pressing issues like availability of water, food and money for
school fees pre-occupy women more than energy problems. Admittedly the kitchen
environment is traditionally the woman's domain in which she takes great pride,
and will therefore invest time in decorating, but survival issues are of greater
importance. Energy has a lower position on her scale of priorities and is a
seldom felt need that women choose to address immediately. As a result energy
has a lower position in her scale of priorities.

The rationale behind stove programmes assumes that both the food
to be cooked and the wood to be conserved are available. The inability of the
stove programmes to be part of integrated rural development (like primary health
care, water and sanitation, nutrition), has resulted in the collapse of
programmes. For example one would have expected some stove programmes to be
associated with other programmes that are designed to teach women home
management skills such as baking. But this has not happened, resulting in women
being "plagued" by different organizations, each coming with a different product
or programme, mud-slinging each other in the process. The women are left with a
fragmented information base which they cannot use.

Notwithstanding the fact that the energy problem has been
inaccurately defined, stove programmes have been implemented in Zimbabwe as part
of a woodfuel conservation programme. Conservation as a concept needs more
analysis than has been carried out by stove developers: conservation by whom,
for what and at what cost? If the causes of deforestation were well understood,
households would not be pressurised to conserve energy because they are not the
culprits. No study is available to show what gains there would be if a community
"adopted the conservation prescription" in relation to the rate of natural
regeneration of the forest or the exploitation by urban commercial wood sellers.
Does saving the forest justify the sacrifice of space heating in winter and the
social gathering/story telling around the fire? Who determines that light and
warmth should be traded for efficiency? Conservation with utilisation warrants
consideration in future dissemination strategies for rural energy users. On the
other hand more controls or penalties should be levelled against the worst
offenders, who are not the rural women.

Scientifically there is a whole debate surrounding the
"efficiency" of stoves. The most efficient stoves in the laboratory might not be
so efficient when they are being used in an uncontrolled environment. When
closely scrutinised there may be nothing intrinsically fuel saving in the
improved stoves.

It is, however, important to note that the development of the
stoves has been dominated by men at all stages even as far down as field
demonstrations. Are women not innovative enough to design stoves that would
solve their problems (if they have them) and are they incapable of promoting a
good product that can surely benefit other women? Is it not yet another example
of scientific experimentation for which the women provide a readily available
field test? One wonders to what extent the male inventors and promoters use the
technology after the laboratory experiments! If the designers were also the
users many of the stoves available or being promoted would have been re-designed
to suit the users' preferences and requirements. This throws light on the hidden
agenda in the development programmes which represent other interests than those
of the women they claim to serve. It is interesting to note that a call for one
stove type to be re-designed to accommodate the women's preferences in Zimbabwe
nearly ended in a law-suit, showing how obstinate designers can be when women
tell them that their product is unacceptable.

Stoves have often been disseminated according to a
mono-technology-push strategy. Because of the nature of the fuel, improved
stoves are inflexible and are "one end use" devices. For example a high mass
stove will maintain its space warming attribute come summer, or winter. Though
the stove is good for simmering hard grains, it uses a lot of energy when one
wants to boil a cup of tea. On the other hand electricity has a whole range of
devices that are complementary and that are used to give the desired result
efficiently at a given time ea. rice cooker, frying pan, microwave, water
heater. Improved stoves are not disseminated as part of a range of household
technologies that should be used to complement the open fire. For instance, a
portable metal stove being disseminated in pert-urban areas could be
disseminated as a stove to be taken to the field for preparation of meals during
the work breaks and then the family could use the energy conserved during the
day for the social fire in the evening.

Improved stoves are disseminated in a conscious effort to
replace the open fire. The open fire has the following drawbacks: it is
inconvenient to operate, poses a hazard to children and houses, gives poor
quality light and seemingly is wasteful of woodfuel. On the other hand the open
fire has the advantages of flexibility in terms of fuel types and pot sizes and
numbers; it provides space heating, acts as a social focal point and can allow
different types of cooking (simmering, fast frying, roasting, boiling); it
provides smoke for preservation of food stuffs, seed and the building material
of huts, gives light, is centrally positioned and ensures good ventilation of
the fire; and is free.

The challenge for stove designers has been to maximise on the
attributes of the open fire and improve on it, and still come out with a product
that will please the user and meet the designer's requirement of efficiency.
Improved stoves should aim at being efficient and environmentally friendly by
offering the following benefits;

· save cooking time
and effort · use minimum fuel with maximum
efficiency · reduce smoke related health
risks to users and child · ensure safety to
users and children · eliminate fire-risks to
house or roof · no spillage risks · eliminate atmospheric pollution - CO, CO2,
nitrogen and sulphur oxides and harmful particles, local or global · can be locally made.

A female cadre for stove development needs to be promoted. Such
a cadre would redesign existing stoves to incorporate different user
preferences. Women should have an input into the design, building and marketing
of stoves. Women's organizations a potential role in stove programmes by
incorporating them into their women's programmes

The low-cost fuel saving measures which women have devised as an
aspect of coping strategies need to be promoted as part of environmental
campaigns. Since women are able to economise to levels that are difficult to
achieve with improved stoves, it is they who should be at the forefront of the
environmental campaigns, not the technocrats. Women conserve fuel when they are
conscious of the importance of doing so and when it is at an "acceptable cost".
Women could exchange experiences and be influential in raising the awareness of
other women who would benefit from similar survival strategies.

Women who would like to have a stove should be afforded the
opportunity by making a wide range of stoves available to them from which they
can choose, as well as adequate training on how to use them.

Stove programmes have had limited impact. The lesson that the
user, that is the woman, is the key decisive factor in the success and
sustainability of a stove programme can not be over-stated. Stoves programmes
need to be evaluated in relation to the broad rural development context. It is
clear that stove programmes in the past have been a miscalculated solution to a
misunderstood problem and they have not improved the situation of women, the
intended beneficiaries.. There is hope for future development if the lessons
from the past are heeded.

The second part of this article, which deals specifically with
the Zimbabwean stove programme, will appear in BP 29 - Stoves Programmes in
Southern Africa.